Chicago Polkfest???

schwarcw

Congratulations to all you folks that made the Chicago Polkfest so wonderful. It's great to hear stories about members having a great time together. You folks will remeber this event for a lifetime. Great planning and teamwork by all!

More pic's!

halo

schwarcw wrote: »

More pic's!

I'm waiting for a response from Justin 80% of what we took came out blurry

I saw Rich, Ricardo, & Aaron taking photos. Anyone else?

tonyb

SCompRacer wrote: »

Ok, OK, I'm barely functioning here.;)

That pic looks like a bunch of escapee's from the looney bin.:)

McLoki

Gear (I heard alot and only remember some of it so bear with me)-

Nakamichi CA5 - SS preamp. Pretty old (maybe 15 or 20 years?) Sounded AWESOME. I liked the sound of the tube pre-amps that were playing, but switching to the SS Nak made everything sound so clean. I think it may have been my favorite of the pre-amps that I heard.

LSi7 VS LSi9 -
Downstairs the 7's were killing. For some reason, in that room - the 9's midbass hump was greatly exagerated and the 7's were just sounding better. We brought both speakers upstairs into the main 2 channel area both running off some killer gear and the 9's proceeded to crush the 7's with everything that was played. I will state that the 7's were my rear speakers in my HT and the wood sides had been removed. I do not know if that would have made any difference or not, but wanted to throw that disclaimer out there. Without the sides on them and when next to the 9's, the 7's look really small. (like give a guy a complex small) Anyway - If you are going to purchase the smaller LSi speakers the smart money says purchase the 9's. If you get the big mid-bass hump and it is exagerated to the point it blows the experience, return them and get the 7's.

9's vs 15's -
This was kind of surprising as many chose the 9's over the 15's (not I mind you, but many others.... ) to each their own, but they are both great sounding speakers.

Eros something or others -
Very nice detailed speaks, but just not my cup of tea. Almost the same as most of the electrostatics that I have heard. I was bi-amping them with the cinepro and they were really nice (and darn loud). We tried bridging the panels (It should have worked) and was met with sparks, elevated blood pressure and silence. In the end nothing was hurt, but that may have been my first and last attempt to bridge with the cinepro. (It did sound nice right up to the point it stopped working though... :eek: :rolleyes:) I was left with understanding the draw of electrostatics, but not really wanting a set.

Von Schweikert VR2's (I cut and pasted the name from MikeC's post so blame him if spelling is wrong.. )
Anyway - these speakers are great. They may be the most detailed non-brite speaker I have heard so far. They are really pretty small towers (shorter than the 15's) but the sound the produce is great. Showing my love of two channel, the entire time I heard them I was thinking how awesome 5 of them would sound in a HT environment...:p Very, Very nice speaker. If you get the chance - you should really try to demo a pair.

Raysonic CD player -
This was about the coolest looking piece of equipment there. It is a tube CD player with blue lights, a clear top and you have to dismatle the darn thing every time you put a CD into it. While the name does sound like a brand you would pick up at K-Mart, the sound it produced was strictly top shelf. It was awesome and looked incredible (to put it in movie terms it looked like a cross between star trek and the fast and the furious).

The Modwright did sound nice, but it just looked like a cd player. How booring is that? The Raysonic looked like it could blow apart in a spectacular light show every time you saw someone changing the CD in it.... (it never did blow apart, but I bet it would look spectacular doing so... )

Mikes dual SVS HT -
It's just rediculous. There is so much bass I think his house may have started as a ranch and he just inflated the roof to form a second level during Black Hawk Down. The HD sources on a 50" screen are so worth it and everything looked fantastic. We did do a quick shootout between my NAD pre/Pro and his Pioneer AVR. It was much closer than I thought it would be with the NAD giving just a little extra detail. The added benefit of having HDMI switching on the AVR would make it a tough choice if I had to recommend one or the other to someone. (to 85% of the people I would have to recommend the Pioneer just for the flexability of HDMI and the uncompressed sound available when running HD sources.

The rest -
The beer, cheesecake and brats were all great. The company was awesome. All the amps sounded great (even my HT based Cinepro right up until it went into protection mode) and everyone seemed to have a very good time. All the equipment that showed up working left that way and there was little structural damage caused to Mikes house. (any damage there was caused by his dual SVS setup)

That is about as much as I remember.... Any specific questions just ask and I (or others) will be glad to chime in.

Michael

RuSsMaN

Halo, pm me for a login/id for Chitown PF 2007 in the system showcase - then you can share the login/pw with those that need it and we can document it for all time.

You guys ROCK.

Cheers,
Russ

halo

pm on the way

Thanks Russ!

swerve

i forgot all about this... sad thing is it was right down the road pretty much. Oh well +1 for getting absolutely smashed earlier this week after finals ended. Life goes on I guess.

Hope you all had fun//and have a safe trip back home.

Adam

halo

Don't sweat it Adam. Hopefully this will be an annual event

Check with MikeC78 about a demo of one of the baddest HT's on the PLANET

SCompRacer

McLoki wrote: »

Eros something or others -

InnerSound Eros MK II's.

Nobody’s fault but mine….even lack of sleep and alcohol are no excuse for the stupid mistake I made. I should have stopped the demo with your amp when I saw the clip lights going off. The protective circuitry of the Cinepro did not like the variable load the ESL panel was presenting, which is a faster changing and much broader range than what conventional speakers present. When an amp is clipping, the amp just isn’t as dynamic, which is what I felt and someone in the room commented on. Bridging the amp made it worse. Your amp was just not designed to run an ESL panel, while the InnerSound/Sanders amps are.

I don’t know about the design of the Cinepro, but usually when an amp clips, protective circuitry switches the power on and off to the output transistors. Most likely, that resulted in a high transient voltage spike being sent to the panels. There is a 50 to 1 transformer in the speaker that drives the ESL panels. If a high voltage spike were sent it would be magnified 50 times which resulted in the light show. The light show was caused by the right ESL panel arcing at the bottom where the wires from the 50:1 transformer connect.

Fortunately, your amp is fine and Norm’s speaker worked fine after it was reconnected to the InnerSound/Sanders amps. I sent an email to Roger Sanders (the designer of the InnerSound speaker) inquiring about the incident to see what he has to say.

How booring is that?

Gear stays on and around my rack by how it sounds, not how it looks.;)

McLoki

SCompRacer wrote: »

InnerSound Eros MK II's.

Nobody’s fault but mine….even lack of sleep and alcohol are no excuse for the stupid mistake I made. I should have stopped the demo with your amp when I saw the clip lights going off. The protective circuitry of the Cinepro did not like the variable load the ESL panel was presenting, which is a faster changing and much broader range than what conventional speakers present. When an amp is clipping, the amp just isn’t as dynamic, which is what I felt and someone in the room commented on. Bridging the amp made it worse. Your amp was just not designed to run an ESL panel, while the InnerSound/Sanders amps are.

I don’t know about the design of the Cinepro, but usually when an amp clips, protective circuitry switches the power on and off to the output transistors. Most likely, that resulted in a high transient voltage spike being sent to the panels. There is a 50 to 1 transformer in the speaker that drives the ESL panels. If a high voltage spike were sent it would be magnified 50 times which resulted in the light show. The light show was caused by the right ESL panel arcing at the bottom where the wires from the 50:1 transformer connect.

Fortunately, your amp is fine and Norm’s speaker worked fine after it was reconnected to the InnerSound/Sanders amps. I sent an email to Roger Sanders (the designer of the InnerSound speaker) inquiring about the incident to see what he has to say.

It shouldn't have been clipping (when the "issue" happened anyway) the volume was way below what it had been with just straight bi-amping.

For those curious, we biamped the panels with my Cinepro amp. I mentioned that I had never seen the clip lights come on with my Cinepro but they are supposed to be there. We had the speaks cranking pretty good and I was surprised that the clip lighs were flashing on the channels driving the panels but not on the channels driving the woofers. That was when the bright idea came to me to bridge the channels driving the panels and keep the woofers drived the way they were (1 channel each). (six channel amp remember, 2 bridged used 4 channels and 2 normal for the bass panels used the other two) We had it at what I would describe as a moderate level (no where near as loud as it was when just biamping) and there was a spark in the speaker followed by silence from the amp. The amp had another light I had never seen on before (a red "protection" light) glowing. We shut everything down, hooked the Cinepro to some more conventional speakers and it played fine. Hooked the InnerSound speakers up to the Sanders amp and the right channel did not sound right. (crap!!!!) found out someone had flipped the light switch controlling the outlet the right InnerSound was plugged into (killing external power to the panel) - turned the switch back on and the speaker was back in business, sounding great. The Cinepro hung its head in shame and left the demo area...


I think must have had something to do with bridging the amp. I am wondering if even though the speaker hits 2 ohms at 20k hz, if it dips below 4 ohms at places under that. The Cinepro is stable to 2 ohms and can be bridged at 4, but I wonder if the speaker was just to much of a load for it when bridged. Anyway - like you said, everything appears to be working fine all the way around, I am just not used to (or knowledgeable about) the kind of load that electrostatic speakers present. It did sound nice while it was playing though....

Gear stays on and around my rack by how it sounds, not how it looks.;)

Just giving you a hard time.

Michael

engtaz

Great to hear the equipment and speakers are ok.

Ricardo

Here are all the pictures I have...no editing, titles or comments. Will do that when I can post in the showcase area.

Edit: Pictures already in the showcase (thanks Victor).

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showcase/view.php?userid=80719

Ricardo

Oh and by the way...I listened to the 7B's (with Peerless) last night, and after hearing them I really wish I could have picked them up on Friday....these 30 years old babies would have beaten more than one of those "new technology" speakers at the fest. I heard Noel's 7A's a couple of years ago and since then I had this "urge" to own a pair with the peerless. Now I know why.

SCompRacer

Michael, IIRC bridging an amplifier causes it to see half the load impedance that it would when it is not bridged so that could cause the protective circuitry to really go nuts. I shouldn't have said your amp was clipping, just that the protection circuit was kicking in. An 8 Ohm speaker can range from 2 to 50 Ohms. An ESL panel can range from 2 to 112 Ohms. I don't know enough about protective circuitry to speak in absolutes, but perhaps the panels are outside the parameters of the Cinepro protection circuitry? You could check with Cinepro and see what they say. I know your never gonna own a pair of ESL's,:p but it might answer the question.

It is hard for me to condemn the speakers as Norm never had a problem with them and they play fine with the InnerSound/Sanders ESL amps. There are plenty of discussions out there about amps that work well with the difficult loads Maggies, InnerSounds, ML,'s, etc. can place on an amp and its protective circuitry. The only reason Norm ended up with two pairs of Eros MK II's (and wants to sell these for a very fair price) was to get the second design bass amp. You cannot purchase the second design bass amp with active crossover seperately, only the ESL panel amps are available. When a pair of Eros MKII speakers popped up on the 'gon with the second design bass amp, he bought them.

The second design bass amp (like the one Victor had at the fest) is very desirable over the first design. The second design is more powerful at 600WPC @ 4 Ohms versus the first design at 200WPC @ 4 Ohms. It also provides remote control of the active crossover along with output volume so you can connect a source directly to it.

I can smile (a little:p ) about it now, but at the time I was very concerned about what might have happened to a pair of speakers belonging to a friend. I couldn't see who was where in the room, but maybe the flash caused someone to jump (a very appropriate reaction) and they bumped the switch controlling the outlet the right speaker was plugged into. Scary moments, but life would be boring without a little excitement now and then.

No way should the Cinepro hang its head in shame. There are many amps out there that just don't get along with ESL's.

dorokusai

The curse has been broken, great event, glad everyone had fun.

heiney9

Sorry to chime in so late, it certainly isn’t a reflection on one of the most enjoyable couple of days I’ve had in awhile. I got all caught up in the SDA’s yesterday and last evening that I just didn’t allow time for my comments on the Chicago PF.

First off, it’s been said before but, a big THANK YOU to Mike and Annie for opening up their home to a bunch of stangers. Your hospitality, kindness and tolerance was simply awesome. The South has got nothing on you guys. Big thanks to Opus (Kevin) for providing all the liquid refreshment, a very nice selection of beer; it was appreciated.

I also can’t say enough about the goodies Frank from Signal Cable sent along. I will be a customer for life because this is the kind of stuff that makes a lasting impression and I’ve already told a handful of people what a generous offering you supplied. You can bet out of the 2 dozen or so people I can “spread the word” amongst you’ll be making some sales. I was really disappointed no one from Polk could make it, but the t-shirts will make up for that. I’ve heard great things about both Al and Paul and perhaps I’ll get to meet them in the future.

Also, big thanks to Victor (Halo) and his awesome wife for keeping this event on track both in the planning stages and at the actual event. Jess is trained well (no disrespect meant) and seems to have as much enthusiasm as the rest of us phreaks for audio and she knows what the hell she is doing as well; plus she a die hard Cubbies fan.

Lastly and certainly not least Rich (SCompRacer) the amount of gear you were willing to load up in a rented van and transport was just awesome. Your TT rig was stellar as I haven’t heard a proper analog rig in over 15 years. I had a great time talking with you as well; you are extremely knowledgeable. Also, a big thanks to Norm (Normanality) and especially his heavily modded (Sonic Caps, Vampire, RD0's) SDA 1C’s which are now in my living room.

I’m currently at work and didn’t want to wait until this evening to get something posted. There is certainly more to come as I have more to say about the Fest but I should get some work done or I’ll be looking for a job. <lol>

H9

P.s. the rest of the Polkies I met were absolutely wonderful. We all had a great time together and I got to make some new friends. We all had fun joking with each other, etc.

zombie boy 2000

My apologies to all at Polkfest for my "no-show". A combination of being away from my computer since Wednesday and simply forgetting when the event was happening has me wearing the dunce cap tenfold. It would appear that my loss is my loss is my loss -- as it seems a stellar time was had by all.

Missing out on free booze, grub, tunes, gear and a motley assortment of Polkies I would have loved to finally put a face to has me flogging myself at the current moment. Hearing that Ricardo is the life of the party I knew he would be only adds insult to injury:D

Thanks to all who worked so hard to put this together. I'm sure this Karma will come back and hump your leg.

Ricardo

Well, I have no idea why Mike says I am "hilarious".....I did my best to behave and am pretty sure I didn't drink more than I should.....

(And, I swear I never had my pants off.....I thought Rich was more serious )

heiney9

zombie boy 2000 wrote: »

My apologies to all at Polkfest for my "no-show". A combination of being away from my computer since Wednesday and simply forgetting when the event was happening has me wearing the dunce cap tenfold. It would appear that my loss is my loss is my loss -- as it seems a stellar time was had by all.

Yep, yep, yep. Pull a chair up in the corner and face forward and think about what you did; we'll tell you when you can stop sitting the corner, by yourself .

After reading this thread I think you get the idea, it was your loss I'm pretty sure there will be a next time though !!:cool:

H9

MikeC78

dorokusai wrote: »

The curse has been broken, great event, glad everyone had fun.

Well, unfortunately we encountered some kind of curse during this event...

It was a clogged kitchen sink that accured late Thursday night!:( It ruined part of my listening experience Saturday afternoon running to Lowe's to get a sink "snake" to unclog this curse with negative results.:( I finally said F*CK it, and figured I'd worry about it later.

Here are some pics of what I did to the pipes with the pressure washer Sunday afternoon trying to unclog the drain.:o

Notice the hole in the insulation... Water actually shot through the pipe, through the insulation, the sheathing for the siding and was leaking all over my deck!!:eek: I'm a horrible plumber!:o

MikeC78

HTrookie wrote: »

Well, I have no idea why Mike says I am "hilarious".....I did my best to behave and am pretty sure I didn't drink more than I should.....

(And, I swear I never had my pants off.....I thought Rich was more serious )

You are just naturally a funny guy, you remind me of a cartoon character of some sort!:p

MikeC78

dkg999 wrote: »

I'm jumping in late also! It's been a long day getting stuff done so I can leave for Boston early Monday morning!

Mike and Annie - we could not have asked for better hosts! You two were absolutely fantastic! And your HT system absolutely rocks! From the dual SVS to the HD display, it was fantastic.

Victor, Rich, Ricardo - thanks so much for setting this up. I had a great time and look forward to future get togethers! I'm probably forgetting someone on the thank you's for putting the event together, forgive me if I left anyone out!

Polk Audio and Signal Cable - thanks for supporting our event. It's the little things like this that drive customer loyalty!

I had a great time and enjoyed meeting everyone and listening to all the gear that we had. On the way home I hit a pretty good sized pothole on I39, and the next thing I hear from Brock is "well there go a set of drivers ........ in the Monitor 10's". I tried to miss the big bumps after that :rolleyes:

Thanks again to everyone involved for a fantastic event! Doug

Doug-

Thank you the kind words and bringing all your wonderful gear! Was a pleasure to meet you and hope to meet again someday.

I almost forgot about those Epos(sp?) speakers you brought over! Anyone looking for something the size of an LSi7 bookshelf, should REALLY consider these!! These speakers suprised the hell out of me, what a wonderful sounding bookshelf!!

Mike

MikeC78

McLoki wrote: »

We did do a quick shootout between my NAD pre/Pro and his Pioneer AVR. It was much closer than I thought it would be with the NAD giving just a little extra detail. The added benefit of having HDMI switching on the AVR would make it a tough choice if I had to recommend one or the other to someone. (to 85% of the people I would have to recommend the Pioneer just for the flexability of HDMI and the uncompressed sound available when running HD sources.

Michael

This was very interesting!! I think Michael's NAD embarrased my Pioneer Elite!:o Looks like I'll be doing some upgrading in the near future...

Ricardo

MikeC78 wrote: »

You are just naturally a funny guy, you remind me of a cartoon character of some sort!:p

ok; that was it; I don't care you're six times my size and trained to kill. Next time I see you you'll be sorry :eek: :eek: :eek:

halo

I just called Paul DiComo and got his voicemail. Left a message, sent a PM, as well as an email.

Give him a call folks! 800-377-7655

Send him an email or a pm! pdicomo at polkaudio dot com

Its the least we can do!

Hope I spelled your names right and addresses too - some of you write like chicken scratches

Also called Frank at Signal Cable and thanked him profusely for his generosity. Said he received an email from a Polkie expressing thanks too. Keep 'em coming people - give him a call or send an email - let him know how you feel

For inquiries, please e-mail us at [email]sales at signalcable dot com[/email]

For customer service issues, please e-mail us at [email]customerservice at signalcable dot com[/email]

If you'd like to leave feedbacks regarding our products, please e-mail us at [email]feedback at signalcable dot com[/email]

We can also be reached at 917-957-8508

halo

I've got a date with the dentist today so I'll be out for a while. Please be patient - I'll get the photos up ASAP

Ricardo

You need to straighten out your priorities

halo

HTrookie wrote: »

You need to straighten out your priorities

You really are a funny guy (picture the scene from Goodfellas )

engtaz

Sorry to hear about the plumming problem "Tim the Toolman Taylor" LOL sometimes more power equals more trouble. All of you sound like you had a good time. Congrats on the event.

Lowell_M

opus wrote: »

Aaron, SVS opens at 10am eastern, 9am central (703)-845-1472. Just ask for Eric:D

Oddly enough... I had a bit of a subwoofer scare last night. We decided to watch a movie last night and I was quite interested to see how my Velo sounded now compared to the dualing-SVS's. The movie started and I thought, "Man, my sub really blows. I don't hear any bass now compared to that SVS." Well, the truth was, I wasn't hearing bass because there wasn't any. The sub was not playing. Long story short and one coronary later..... In moving gear around to get the Nak out from behind my wall-o-gear, I must have tugged the sub out loose. ...All better now. My first thought was, ":mad: Holly crap, now I have to buy a new sub..." then I thought..." Holy crap, now I have to buy a new sub!" But it's all better now. It's no SVS, but loads up my basement just fine for now.

That is an awesome HT you have, though mike. Well put together all the way around from video to audio. That plasma is pretty sweet!

I also forgot about the Epos. That is the second time I heard them in competition with the LSi7's and I must say they are a sleeper. Great bang for the buck! These mated with a small sealed sub would make a great compact system at a low price point.